Definition
A Latin term from Roman law meaning "to have given." In legal texts and instruments, *dedisse* is the perfect infinitive of *dare* (to give) and appears primarily in two contexts: (1) as a formal word of conveyance or grant in deeds and charters, where a grantor declares that he "has given" certain property or rights to a grantee; and (2) as a term of art in Roman and civil law analysis, where it serves as the operative verb describing a completed act of giving, exchange, or transfer.
The term carries a broader legal significance than its literal translation suggests. Under the Roman law maxim preserved in the Digest, a person who has exchanged property (*permutavit*) or satisfied an obligation by set-off or compensation (*compensavit*) is treated as having "given" within the meaning of legal rules that apply to gifts or transfers. The act of giving, in this analytical framework, is not confined to a direct, unilateral transfer but extends to any transaction in which value passes from one party to another by agreement.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers encounter *dedisse* most often in one of two distinct document types: medieval and early modern Latin deeds, or commentary on Roman and civil law texts. The two contexts require different interpretive approaches.
In deed language, *dedisse* is a word of conveyance — typically the first operative verb in a grant clause following the grantor's name. The formula *dedi et concessi* ("I have given and granted") is among the oldest and most common conveyancing phrases in English real property instruments and their Latin predecessors. Researchers reading original charters or early printed conveyancing forms will encounter this word as signaling the transfer of the fee or the grant of a specific interest. Its presence identifies the grantor's dispositive intent and the moment at which title was understood to pass.
In the civil law context, the significance is analytical rather than documentary. The Digest maxim (*Dedisse intelligendus est etiam is qui permutavit, vel compensavit*) was cited by civilian jurists to extend legal consequences that attached to "giving" — such as duties of warranty, revocation rules for gifts, or the condictio for recovery of what was given — to transactions that might otherwise seem structurally different from a simple gift or transfer. Researchers working in comparative law, equity history, or restitution theory may encounter this principle in the commentaries of Bartolus, Baldus, Grotius, or later natural lawyers who drew on the Digest for general propositions about transfer of value.
A trap for researchers using English-language secondary sources: because *dedisse* is rarely translated in common law treatises, its appearances in Latin instruments or in civil law quotations are frequently passed over without analysis. When the word appears in a deed corpus or in a medieval cartulary, it should be flagged as operative conveyancing language, not merely descriptive Latin.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary gives a compact but sound entry. Burrill correctly identifies *dedisse* as meaning "to have given" and reproduces the Digest maxim at 50.16.76, which equates exchange and compensation with giving. The entry is brief and does not explore the conveyancing usage — a gap reflecting Burrill's civil law orientation at that point in the dictionary. No other shelf source in the current Law Mind corpus provides a separate entry for this term. Researchers needing deeper treatment of the Digest maxim should consult civilian commentary directly; the maxim appears in title 50.16 of the Digest (*De verborum significatione*), which is a juristic glossary of legal terms and their extended meanings — a natural home for this kind of definitional expansion.
Jurisdictional Note
As operative deed language, *dedisse* is primarily relevant to jurisdictions with Roman, civil law, or early English common law documentary traditions — particularly in Latin instruments predating the shift to vernacular conveyancing. In Louisiana, Quebec, or Scots law research, the civil law analytical meaning retains greater practical relevance than in common law jurisdictions, where the term survives mainly as a historical artifact in deed recitals.